The captain of the guard had pulled Adam to a side room of the arena, uanding there was a certain procedure she o follow sihe arena artially involved. The room provided was rge and bare, just a small table between Adam and the captain, the pair sitting on a set of basic chairs.

  A pair of guards stood oher side of the exit of the room. They wore half pte mail, and carried bdes at their side. Their cloaks were a deep red with a golden trim, just like their captain.

  “Do yhis man?” Captain Cra asked, revealing a piece of paper with a sketch.

  “Yeah,” Adam replied, staring down at the sketch. “Hari, the Red… something. Serpent, maybe? I faced him yesterday in the arena. Easiest one hundred gold of my life, save for the bets I made. Still, I didn’t kill him. The priests attest to that sihey checked on him.”

  “He was found dead in the river with ssh marks against his body,” the captain informed. “We tell they were done by an axe.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Adam said, frowning. He had only met the man st night and he had seemed a det enough fellow. “You think I got something to do with that?”

  “Now how did you e to that clusion?” Cra leaned in, narrowing her eyes towards the Half Elf.

  Adam remained sitting opposite her, his hands oable. He had handed over his axe and shield to Jurot, uanding that it was a bad idea to take them with him. The guards had made to try to take them from the Iyrmen, but the arena guards had quickly stepped in to stop the situation from esg too hard, and had moved Adam’s group to a nearby room, where they could be easily accessed if they o gather them for any reason.

  “If I had to take a guess, it’s because I fought him, won a hundred gold, used an axe, and I’m a Half Elf whose made quite the name for himself and probably upset a noble or two.” Adam had an inkling that this was something done by a noble in order to deal with him. He was someone who could challehe favourites of his segment, and erhaps an eyesore for the nobles. “I hope you’ve sent word to Sir Landon Littlesea that one of his warriors has been accused of murder.”

  Cra threw a look to one of the guards, who stepped out, before she turned her gaze back to Adam. ‘Sir Landon Littlesea? The son of Baron Ramon, was it?’

  Adam leaned back to rex, seeing that the woman was no longer questioning him, and had pulled away herself as she waited for Sir Landon to be brought before them.

  Sir Landon arrived a short while ter, far shorter than expected, escorted by the same guard who had left, as well as an arena guard. A seat had been brought for him, as well as a cushion which ced upon it. Some tea and fruit was brought for the young noble, and the tension in the air began to melt away.

  “I hope you have a good reason fing me here,” Landon said, giving the captain minor trouble for calling him here. However, he uood what the situation was, the unspoken gazes between them expining everything.

  “Your warrior, Adam, is accused of murder.”

  “Murdering who?” Landon asked, before leaning in to look down at the paper to see the rough sketch. “An Aswadian? I’m sure he had it ing to him. Adam wouldn’t kill a man like this unless it was for self defence.”

  Cra rexed slightly, leaning back away from the young noble and the Half Elf. Since Sir Landon had mao form a det enough justification, and was willing to defend the boy, it meant that this wasn’t about charging Adam for murder, but rather to learn more about Adam.

  When two nobles were involved like this, it wasn’t good to aggravate one side over the other, and she hadn’t been given any special requests to make sure Adam was brought to justice. This justification was good enough for her to write up a short report, and for her to tih a much lighter interrogation of the Half Elf.

  “Whoa, whoa,” Adam raised his hands up from the table, as though he was threatened under crossbowpoint. “I didn’t kill him.”

  “I’m sure it was self defence,” Landon said, sipping his tea, befiving Adam a look. It was a look to tell him that the matter was settled.

  “I didn’t kill him,” Adam repeated, noting that Landon was looking at him strangely, and gathered that something else was going on.

  “You didn’t murder him even if you did kill him. Murder is the unwful killing, and killing with the justification of self-,”

  “Sir Landon,” Adam said, daring to interrupt the noble, even causing the guards to pause in shock. “You’ve travelled with me before. You know how strong I am. You know that I’m much strohan before too. Think about it. The wolves. The cult. The Twilight Fox. Even your own warrior. Do you think I, Adam, o kill a guy if he came to attack me? This guy, he retty skilled, sure, but please. I’d be able to knock him out, drag him to the guards, and still fight in a match, and win.”

  Landon knew Adam had been holding ba his fights, though to hear Adam speak so early about his strength like this, it revealed to him that Adam was strohan even he imagined. He had seen Adam do some pretty crazy things, and then there was his brother, Jurot. The Iyrman had fought the previous King’s Sword, knoerhaps the greatest King’s Sword to date, and had forced the now Traitor King to use his greatest spells to deal with him.

  None of that was relevant to this situation, however. It seemed Adam had an issue with the matter of killing. He wondered whioble had ordered the interrogation. There were many suspects, of course, but there would be a problem if Adam didn’t go along with the py, especially if it was someone much higher up.

  ‘Are you going to cause trouble?’ Landon thought, w how far he should go for the Half Elf.

  “I heard that most other Experts get under a hundred gold per win, but you spent even more money on us because you know that we’re strong, and that was two years ago, before, I believe, I was an Expert.” Adam raised his brows towards the young nobleman. Adam, using his knowledge about how ypically worked, uood that this was about justification, or assumed that was the case.

  “Adam is right.” Landon decided to bet on Adam. “Adam had o kill him, and is strong even to deal with the likes of the Aswadian. Though he prays to Lord Sozain, his panion is Sir Voke, a member of Life’s Rose.”

  The guards gnced between one another, visibly rexing further. The mention of Life’s Rose had certain eased what little tension remained in the room. Cra was gd she had received more justification to deal with the matter ly. The name of Life’s Rose robably the best justification they could bring in.

  “The only other person I know who uses an axe is Jurot, but I don’t think he did it,” Adam said.

  “Jurot?” Cra asked, gd the Half Elf was giving her more information without needing to be prompted.

  “My brother,” Adam said. “He’s the one who I handed my shield and axe to.”

  “Is he also a warrior under your name, Sir Landon?” Cra asked. If she could get him here, then perhaps there could be more she could gleam from the pair.

  “He is.” Sir Landon slowly bowed his head, giving Cra permission to tinue. ‘Phew.’

  “Your brother is an Iyrman?” Cra asked Adam. Last she recalled, the person the Half Elf had given the axe to was an Iyrman, as evident by his furs and tattoo.

  “He is.”

  She looked to his forehead, and then back to Sir Landon, her eyes full of a question. This was something she hadn’t expected, and was a little bit of an issue. Sir Landon replied with a slow nod of his head again.

  “Send for the Iyrman.”

  The arena workers uood what was going on, and had gotten to wht away. There weren’t many guards which could use their influehin the arena. Cra had gohrough the proper protocol, and had thus far followed the procedure agreed between the guards and the arena, so they caused no trouble for her.

  Adam’s panions were hanging out nearby, with the fights shuffled so that the teens could fight ter in case they were required for the situation. They assumed that this was the matter of a her trying to frame Adam, in which case Sir Landon would be called in to testify on Adam’s behalf, or this was a rying to dig up more information about the Half Elf for one reason or another.

  “So you’re Jurot?” Cra asked, staring at the young Iyrman who was adorned in heavy furs. She couldn’t help but admire his physique, for the Iyrmeainly held the greatest physiques in the nd.

  “Yes,” Jurot replied, noting how rexed Cra seemed. He realised that Adam wasn’t really in trouble.

  “Take a seat.”

  Jurot sat beside Adam, sitting tall and proud. He crossed his arms, waiting to be interrogated. He had no fear of the situation, and it wasn’t because they had allowed him to keep his axe, or because Sir Landon would deal with it, or even because Adam was at his side, or because this wasn’t as serious as expected.

  He had no fear, because the best thing would be for them to walk away freely, which was most likely, and the sed best thing was to spill their blood on the floor, which was most preferred.

  “The Half Elf cims you’re his brother, but I don’t think I’ve heard of any Half Elf being an Iyrman.”

  “He is my brother,” Jurot firmed.

  “I know many tales of the Iyrmen. I Port, there are many tales which pass by from all of the world. The Fire Giants of Voodur. The people known as Inasir, those of the elements. The federacy, with its corsairs and great meraries, many of which East Port has hired even in the past decade.”

  “The Brands are currently active around the port district,” Jurot firmed.

  odded, the Iyrman revealing quite a bit of information with just that singur line. “Ohing I know about Iyrmen is that, once you’re a man, or woman, you get tattooed.” Cra motioo Adam’s bare forehead. “He’s got no tattoo.”

  “Adam is no Iyrman,” Jurot firmed, “but he is my brother.”

  Cra remained silent. She had assumed Adam was lying when he mentiohey were brothers, since he wasn’t an Iyrma, if the Iyrman said it, then this was another matter entirely. She had bee in order to gather every little detail. If Adam had been firmed to be lying, then even Sir Landon wouldn’t have been able to deal with the matter, and it could have escated further thaher side expected.

  “How he be your brother if he is not an Iyrman?”

  “We have the same sister,” Jurot replied.

  The captaihe Iyrman’s gaze. “Alright. He says he didn’t kill the Aswadian. What do you think?”

  “He did not do it.”

  “How you be so sure?”

  “Adam, did you kill him?”

  “No,” Adam replied.

  “Then he did not do it.”

  “You believe him just because he said so?”

  “Adam is queer, but he is no liar,” stated, as though it were fact. “He would n shame to the Rot family name.” Jurot’s eyes remained firmly fixated onto the captain’s. He was dario disagree. He knew what she was doing here, but even so, he wasn’t going to let her act up freely, not when it came to the Iyr’s matters.

  “I hear you’re doing quite well iour,” Cra said, smiling slightly. “I’ve yet to watch your bouts, since I have been w. You’re quite young still, though, so you shouldn’t let it get to your head.”

  “You are strong, captain,” Jurot said. He had he colour of her cape, red, which meant she was a member of the elite guard. The trim was golden, revealing she carried magical ons. The buttons that csped her cloak to her armour were far more stylised, meaning she was close to the level of a Master, while the other two were Experts. “There are six warriors in this room, and you would p the top half, after my brother and I.”

  “You think you beat me?” Cra asked, raising her brow, as though daring him to state it again.

  “No,” Jurot stated, keeping his gaze glued to hers. “I know I beat you.”

  The pair remained gring at one another.

  Adam, who had been remaining silent, swallowed. He had figured that something , but to think that the greatest card he had drawn in order to deal with the situation was trying to get him killed.

  ‘Damn it, Jurot! St to aggravate her!’

  Adam now uood how it felt to be on the receiving end.

  Jurot wth bro.